Consumer Reports says new iPad runs 'significantly hotter'

Bloomberg News |
March 20, 2012
| Updated: March 20, 2012 4:19pm

The new Highland Village Apple Store was crowded with customers wanting to buy the new iPads on Friday morning.

Photo By Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle

Customers line up to purchase the new iPad 3.

Photo By Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle

Greg Roberts, 64, gets a first look at the new iPad 3 at the Highland Village Apple Store.

Photo By Irfan Khan/wire

An Apple store employee carry a stack of iPads for a customer at the company's store in Pasadena, California, on Friday, March 16, 2012. Long lines did not deter shoppers from snapping up the new version of the iPad on the product's launch day. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

Photo By Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

An employee opens the doors to the flagship Apple Store on Stockton Street to let in the first batch of customers waiting to buy new iPad in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, March 16, 2012.

﻿﻿﻿Apple Inc.'s new iPad runs "significantly hotter" than the earlier model when conducting processor-intensive tasks such as playing graphics-heavy games, according to Consumer Reports, which tested the device.

The newest version of the market-leading tablet computer ran as hot as 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius), the magazine said on its website. Consumer Reports, published by the consumer-watchdog group Consumers Union, used a thermal-imaging camera to record the temperature while playing the action game "Infinity Blade II."Even with the increased temperature, Consumer Reports said the device wasn't uncomfortable to hold.

"When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period," the magazine said on its website.

Consumer Reports isn't the only reviewer to note the heating issue. Websites such as Engadget have cited a study by Dutch site Tweakers.net, which found the tablet runs hotter by 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Some consumers in online discussions have cited high temperatures with the iPad.

The new device operates "well within our thermal specifications," Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, said in a statement. "If customers have any concerns they should contact AppleCare."

Consumer Reports didn't notice the higher temperature in its initial examination of the new iPad, a process that included testing with games such as "Infinity Blade II." In the March 16 review, the magazine praised the device, saying it was "shaping up to be the best tablet we've ever tested."

Consumer Reports didn't say whether the heating issue would determine whether it would recommend the device. When Apple released the iPhone 4, the magazine declined to recommend it, saying it dropped calls when gripped a certain way. After initially playing down the matter, which became known as "Antennagate," Apple gave out free cases and issued a software update designed to fix the glitch.